Why Are We Not Saved?

Jeremiah is known as the “weeping prophet” or sometimes as the “prophet of doom” because of the impression of his message. Jeremiah lived during the last years of the 7th century BC in the historical crisis of the last days of Judah. The final blow was struck in 587 BC by the Babylonians and everything that was central to political and religious life in Jerusalem was destroyed. This was not in accordance with the ‘royal-temple’ ideology of Israel in Jeremiah’s day. The claim was that the God of Israel had made irrevocable promises to the temple and the monarchy, had taken up permanent residence in Jerusalem, and was for all time a patron and guarantor of the Jerusalem establishment. In such a view, obedience is not a crucial dimension of faith.

The governing paradigm for the tradition of Jeremiah is Israel’s covenant with Yahweh, rooted in the ‘blessings’ and ‘curses’ of the covenant of Sinai. The invasion and deportation was the result of the covenant curse being inflicted for continuous rebellion. In spite of this, however, Yahweh wills a continuing relation with Israel. Throughout the book, we see God’s inexplicable yearning or pathos. This pathos explains the tension often seen through the book: the severity of covenant sanctions, and the power of God’s yearnings. The pathos of God allows the book of Jeremiah to move beyond the crisis and death of the exile to envision a newness that is wrought out of God’s gracious resolve and powerful will, introducing an articulation of hope.

THE BEHAVIOUR OF THE PEOPLE

The message that is presented uses the technique of asking questions to probe people’s perception of their situation and to stir them up to a realisation of their danger. The message makes use of three commonsense observations to bring out how unnaturally Judah was responding to circumstances.

Unnatural Conduct [4-7]

The Lord’s message begins with a series of questions to prod the people into thinking about their situation.

The description of the impending devastation of the land through a report placed on the lips of the people as the enemy forces his way into their country and the long-threatened disaster starts to engulf them.

i. The Question

There is a switch from the words of the Lord to the response the people will give in the envisaged time of judgement: “why do we sit still? Assemble ourselves…” [8:14].

בַּת־עַמִּ֗י - “daughter of my people” [8:19], ‘a tender and affectionate address used both by the Lord and by the prophet’;

מֵאֶ֙רֶץ֙מַרְחַקִּ֔ים - “farcountry” [8:19], ‘distant place’; ‘an area far off from point of reference’;

b. The Presence

What then follows is the confident speech of the people as they expect the Lord to intervene on their behalf.

i. Zion

The focus of the people’s expectation: “in Zion…” [8:19].

בְּצִיּ֔וֹן - “Zion” [8:19], ‘hill in SE Jerusalem’; ‘city of David’;

From the time Solomon built the temple, Zion became the center of Yahweh’s activity. Yahweh identified himself as “the One who dwells on Mount Zion” (Isa 8:18). Here he initiates his work of salvation and here he begins his judgment against sin (Amos 1:2).

The role of Yahweh: “the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; he will save us” [Isa.33:22].

Application

The plaintive words have been revealed to the prophet as the reaction of those who have been taken into exile, perhaps in 605 BC or later in 597 BC.

It is difficult to see the words being used after the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC.

In the distant land of their exile they are trying to rationalise what has happened.

They had been sure that the Temple presence of the Lord in Zion guaranteed security for the city.

It was His place; how then could he have permitted all these things to come upon his people?

Here we have questions arising from the ‘royal-temple’ ideology of Israel in Jeremiah’s day. The claim was that the God of Israel had made irrevocable promises to the temple and the monarchy, had taken up permanent residence in Jerusalem, and was for all time a patron and guarantor of the Jerusalem establishment. The people took Yahweh’s presence for granted: the Lord should be here.

The Divine Word of Judgement [19b]

The exiles’ two questions are then taken up by a question of the Lord which interrupts their chain of thought, but expresses clearly the fundamental factor in the situation: “why have they provoked me to anger…” [8:19].

The breaking of the people may be the physical disaster that will come upon them, but it goes beyond that to their spiritual condition: “set up the banner toward Zion: retire, stay not: for I will bring evil from the north, and a great destruction” [4:6].

b. Jeremiah’s Present Grief

What Jeremiah sees engulfing the people brings grief to him already: “I am black, astonishment…” [8:21].

The burden of being the Lord’s prophet to an unresponsive people lay not only in the difficulty of putting up with their rejection of his message, but also in his own vivid imagination of what was coming upon them.

Their fate grieved him because he was certain that the Lord’s word was going to come true.

“To love another as you love a child is to become vulnerable in a whole new way. It is no longer through what can happen to yourself that the world can hurt you, but through what happens to the one you love also and greatly more hurting. When it comes to your own hurt there are things you can do. But when it comes to the hurt of a child you love, you are all but helpless” (Brueggemann, 92).

The Prophet’s Challenge

Jeremiah then wonders if nothing can be done for the people

a. The First Question

i. The Location

The location: “in Gilead…” [8:22].

בְּגִלְעָ֔ד - “Gilead” [8:22], ‘mountain range or hill country east of Jordan between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea’; * It was a rugged and wooded area that had long been associated with an aromatic resin which was used as a soothing ointment and also gave a pleasant odour.

ii. The First Rhetorical Question

The rhetorical question: “is there no balm in Gilead…” [8:22].

הַצֳרִי֙ - “balm” [8:22], ‘gum material taken from the bark of a tree’; ‘used as a medicinal balm’;

Gilead’s balm would not heal the people: “go up into Gilead, and take balm, O virgin, the daughter of Egypt: in vain shalt thou use many medicines; thou shalt not be cured” [46:11].

The rhetorical question expects the answer: ‘Of course there is balm in Gilead’.

אֲרֻכַ֖ת - “health” [8:22], ‘lengthening of the flesh over a wound as new skin grows’; ‘restoration of relationship’;

c. The Healing

Jeremiah is asserting the need for spiritual care, and is pointing to the Lord himself who was viewed as the Healer par excellence in Israel: “For I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the LORD” [30:17]; “Behold, I will bring it health and cure, and I will cure them, and will reveal unto them the abundance of peace and truth” [33:6].

The Exodus: “If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that heals thee” [Exo.15:26].

The Psalmist: Who forgives all thine iniquities; who heals all thy diseases…” [Psa.103:3].

The Servant: “and with his stripes we are healed” [Isa.53:5].

The false prophets: “They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace” [8:11].

Application

If the medicine exists, and the doctors exist, then surely a cure can be effected.

Jeremiah is not talking about physical injuries, although they would abound during a military invasion.

When Jeremiah poses the question as to why there has been no healing, there can only be one answer: “there has been no repentance’.